Friday, August 8, 2014

After the last “business” meeting, everything was cleared
away to make room for the closing ceremony of this gathering of the Global
Indigenous Initiative

[Rachael setting things up.]

The idea for the ceremony was simple.All through our discussions, we had been
writing notes and statements on large pieces of paper and posting them on the
walls.

[Sample pages from the walls.]

After photographing them all, to preserve the information,
they were taken down and rolled up into a bundle.We all took positions in the long main room
in the form of a boat.At the tiller
were the members of the original GII, representing the past and our foundation.Along the sides of the boat were the folks
from this meeting – the Circle of Wisdom Keepers – representing the
present.At the prow were Tiger and
Ta’Kaiya – the youth – representing the future.The bundle would be passed from the past to the future and entrusted to
the youth.

Alejandrino, Fany, Raul, and Sofia – with Erika and Luz
translating – represented the original GII.They asked Rachael and me to join them and speak as “bookends”, with
Rachael going first and me last.We were
both honored to be included in this way.Rachael started by explaining how the GII relates to the URI’s
Multiregion.Each of the Latin Americans
spoke about their own memories of the earlier days of the GII.Alejandrino spoke at some length.He emphasized how important the ongoing
support of “los Wiccas” had been to the success of the GII and that everyone in
the room should be thankful for that support.I talked about the importance of the GII being within the URI,
how “URI 2.0” was ready and eager to hear
the indigenous voice, and how the fact that four of the six of us standing
there had been URI Trustees at some point
testified to the URI’s support.

[Alejandrino, Erika, Fany, Raul, Luz, Sofia, me.]

Raul passed the bundle to the Circle of Wisdom Keepers, who
passed it hand by hand to Tiger and Ta’Kaiya at the front of the “boat”.They accepted the bundle with a promise to
carry the wisdom of their Elders and of the Earth into the future.

[The Boat of Wisdom Keepers]

After the ceremony, I told Alejandrino that I very much
appreciated being asked to stand with the Latin American GII members.Alendrino said to me (through Erika): “You
had to be there!The GII would not exist
if not for you!”I said that it was very
nice of him to say that, but how could it possibly be true?He reminded me of how we first met…

In 2002, Rowan Fairgrove and I attended the first Global
Assembly of the URI in Rio
de Janeiro.At
one point during the week-long conference, URI
Trustee Yoland Trevino had come up to me and Rowan and said: “You have to meet
with the indigenous people.Tonight.After dinner.”We said “Okay, sure.”, not knowing what was
going on.(It turned out that many
indigenous representatives had been asking URI
Director Charles Gibbs if the indigenous could be their own Region in the URI.Charles had said “No.”, but that they should
talk tio the indigenous representatives on the new Global Council: Rosalia
Gutierrez, Yoland Trevino, and me.This
got them wondering what “Wicca” was and they had been asking Yoland.)

Rowan and I met with (meeting most for the first time)
Alejandrino, Raul, Sofia, Fany,
Rosalia Gutierrez (Kolla / Argentina),
Yoland, and a bunch of translators.We
spent a few hours explaining what Wicca is, about the Christianization of
Europe, about the marginalization of native traditions in Europe,
about the Church’s practice of absorbing what it could (e.g. holidays and
sacred sites) and demonizing the rest (e.g. “witch”, the Horned God, etc.), and
the meaning of the word “pagan”.We
learned that they had all been taught in (Catholic) school that before the
coming of the Church, the Europeans had worshipped demons.At the end of the conversation, Alejandrino
had hugged me and said that he would go home and tell his children that “the
Wicca are people just like us.”

What I didn’t know was that this had been the first time
that Alejandrino, Raul, Sofia, Fany, Rosalia, and Yoland had all met each
other!After Rowan and I had left, the
rest of them had continued talking and decided that they should continue
meeting, to have a stronger voice in the newly-forming URI.This was the origin of the Global Indigenous
Initiative!So, Alejandrino explained,
if not for me and Rowan, the GII would never have gotten started.

I was stunned, pleased, and noted that this was another
example of how CoG’s involvement in interfaith work can have significant
repercussions we only find out about years later – in this case 12 years
later!How many other, similar stories
are out there that we haven’t heard yet?

From this point to the final farewells the following
morning, the time was mostly spent in socializing and making connections to
follow-up later.There was a lot of
discussion of having the next meeting in two years in Benin.Dr. Erick Gbodossou of Senegal
maintains a center in Benin
with sufficient infrastructure to support us.

Several of the representatives stayed in the Bay Area for up
to a week after the GII meeting.Raul
and Alejandrino stayed at Rachael’s.Coralie, Glenis, and Cheryl stayed at a hotel near me, then later, after
Raul and Alejandrino left, with Rachael.At one point they all visited the Adocentyn Research Library together and
we discussed good books to get for the library.I spent one day taking Coralie, Glenis, and Cheryl to Muir Woods so they
could experience a Redwood forest. Anna
and I spent a lot of time with them and had wonderful discussions about Australia,
the Aboriginal situation, comparisons between their practice and ours, and life
in general.

[Visit to Adocentyn Research Library.]

It was a powerful few days, with many good new connections
made and friendships begun.The new
iteration of the GII has a lot of potential.We’ll see how it develops.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

The next day, Diane Longboat started us off with: “Our
ceremonies here have united us, in ways not known in the outer world.In ceremony, we fell in love with each
other.What can I learn from each of the
traditions who were there, are here?I
am a richer person for sitting with each of us, each of us bearing the wisdom
of a living tradition based on ancient cultures and civilizations.We are one, a community with its roots in the
Earth.We each walked through fire to be
here.A world led without a spiritual
foundation has failed.Everything we
need to know, Mother Earth is showing us: a paradigm for a new world.There will be challenges, but we have been
trained to overcome them.”

With so little time remaining for the “business” part of the
meeting, Audri was forced to take a lot of short cuts. First, as a large group we discussed the same
questions:

* Who are
we?

* What do
we want to do?

* What will
it look like when we have it?

* What do
we need to do to get there?

* What does
prophecy say?

* How is
the environment – the place where we are meeting now – speaking to us and
informing our discussion?

Ta'Kaiya Blaney – who speaks with profound wisdom well beyond
her 13 years – said that “What we do reflects through the generations to
come.Crimes against Mother Earth are
crimes against our children!We need a
breath of fresh air, but the air is not fresh.”

After lunch, we talked about “next steps” and decided to
focus on certain “action areas”:

1) Protecting
Sacred Arts – There was a lot of concern about the outright theft of
traditional sacred materials, ranging from sacred land to sacred objects, but
also appropriation.I was surprised at
how many people seriously objected to traditional arts and music being used by
others in the creation of their own arts and music.This is a process that has gone on all over
the world and throughout time and there really isn’t anything one can do to
stop it.Even so, there might be some
legal way to designate whether or not something is the product of indigenous
people.(Although I think this would be
a legal nightmare.)

2)
Developing Alliances – There are a lot of groups out there who could be of
great help on issues of common concern: interfaith groups, religious groups,
and environmental groups.

3)
Denouncing the Doctrine of Discovery – There were some folks present who were
VERY angry / enthused about this and wanted to work on getting the Pope to
repudiate the Doctrine and apologize for it in 2015.While I understand the emotional reasons for
outrage about the Doctrine, in my opinion action towards getting it repealed
can easily become a huge waste of
precious resources.I think that: a)
Getting the Vatican
to do anything takes years of behind
the scenes work.Remember the last-minute
attempts to get an apology to the Pagans piggy-backed onto an apology to Jews
and Muslims that was the result of 30
years of dialogue.b) Many people
are confusing the role of the Doctrine of Discovery – i.e. the Papal decrees – with
the general legal precedent of “you conquered it, you keep it”.c) Even if the Pope does reverse this decree,
it won’t automatically cause the sudden reversal of all legal decisions that
invoked it as precedent (especially in Protestant countries).It just means that any such legal decision
could be appealed with the appeal having a greater likelihood of success.Even so, there were many folks in the room
who enthusiastically supported pursuing repudiation and an apology.As long as this is a committee of the GII and
not the focus of the whole, I won’t object.

4)
Preserving Sacred Gardens – This included working with governmental and
environmental agencies to protect stands of forest and also working with
botanical and educational agencies on preserving traditional wisdom about
plants and their use.

5)
Protecting Sacred Sites – This was similar to #4, but included sites that were
built by people and sites without noticeable vegetation.

6)
Protecting Sacred Ways – This was similar to #1,
but included preserving traditional festivals and ceremonies.

We were originally going to be discussing all of these together
and in breakout groups – but with so little time, Audri arranged us into
tables, each of which would discuss just one of the topics.I was in the group on Preserving Sacred Arts,
since Audri wanted me to talk about the Lost & Endangered Religions
Project.Everyone had a chance to
talk.I was the last person around the
circle and we barely had time for me to say something about LERP before our
meeting time was up.This is an
indication of how pressed for time we were.My group included:

* Cheryl Grogan
– Djabugay / North Australia.She talked about the need to protect
traditional arts that aren’t necessarily sacred, such as cave paintings on her
tribal lands.The government provides some protection for sacred sites, but
non-sacred art sites are regularly pillaged.

* Sofia
Painiqueo – Mapuche / Chile.She expressed concern about preserving
traditional arts and music in the face of the syncretic arts that result when
non-traditional artists use traditional arts.The young people get confused about what is and isn’t traditional
and “crap” gets passed on as traditional arts.

*
Alessandra Belloni – South Italy.She said that the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York City would
probably be interested in a festival of truly
indigenous arts and culture.She also railed against “charlatans
presenting fake indigenous culture.”

* Fany
Avila – Kuna / Panama.She echoed Sofia’s
concerns about truly sacred symbols and rhythms being used by non-indigenous
people in inappropriate and profane art.

* Glenis Grogan
(Wanegan) – Djabugay / North Australia.She proposed the idea of GII-sponsored “living
cultural centers” that could travel around the world, exposing people to and
educating them about, truly indigenous arts and culture.

* Coralie
Wason (Bununda) – Djabugay / North Australia.She echoed Cheryl’s concerns and wondered if the
GII could muster support for petitioning governments for greater protection of traditional
arts.

* Philip
“Tiger” Lane (Brown Bear) – Yankton Dakota & Chicasaw / USA.He reminded us that the Internet is still a
powerful tool for educating youth about indigenous arts & culture.Ta’Kaiya suggested that we propose an
indigenous reality TV show, like the recent programming about the Amish.I suggested that we start smaller, with
indigenous radio programming, which would reach more people globally.Someone suggested that we try to interest “Hollywood”
in more accurate representations of indigenous cultures in the movies.

* I
explained the Lost & Endangered Religions Project (www.religionsproject.org) to the
group and pledged its support for any appropriate projects that the GII undertook.
Ta’Kaiya wondered if the Rosetta Stone
language software could be adapted into a tool for preserving endangered
languages.I think this is worth
exploring.

* Liam Chinn
– (URI Global Support Staff).Liam was also with us, but primarily as an
observer.

When we gathered back together, it turned out that a lot of
our conversations had overlapped.A lot
of what I wrote about above was repeated and emphasized.I think that a LOT of
time was taken up with addressing the Doctrine of Discovery and making sure that
some sort of statement demanding an official repudiation of the Doctrine came
out of THIS meeting.

June, July, and August were busy months for interfaith
meetings; some of which have been described in this blog.The meeting of the Global Indigenous
Initiative got only a short report because I only had a short window between
meetings and was then at a retreat center without an internet connection.

The Global Indigenous Initiative was created in 2002 as an
“Initiative” – sort of a “special project” – of the early United Religions
Initiative.It met irregularly over the span
of many years, with representatives from roughly 14 tribes involved at
different times.Yoland Trevino – Chiair
of the URI’s Global Council and indigenous
Maya was the only member of the GII’s coordinating group who both Spanish and
English and so served as its liaison with the URI’s
“Hub” office in San Francisco. I have always thought that the GII is special in that it is an example of indigenous people organizing within the context of broader, global interfaith work, whereas most other such organizing efforts have been in opposition to the "mainstream" religions.

Rachael Watcher and I attended the GII meeting held in
Ayacucho in 2004, at which the Spirituality & the Earth CC (the URI
Cooperation Circle I founded in 2000 with Rowan
Fairgrove, Deborah Ann Light, and others) became the first members of the GII
outside Latin America.With the S&ECC, the GII now
included members in Asia, Europe,
and North America.

The four indigenous representatives at this 2014 meeting of
the GII had each served on the Coordinating Committee of the older GII at
various times.Three of the four had
served on the URI’s Global Council as a
Trustee:

* Raul
Mamani – Kolla / Argentina(GC term 2005 – 2008)

* Fany
Avila – Kuna / Panama(GC term 2008 – 2012)

*
Alejandrino Quispe Mejia – Quechua / Peru(GC term 2012 – 2016)

* Sofia
Painiqueo – Mapuche / Chile

The S&ECC provided English lessons for GII
representatives, provided laptop computers and internet access, helped with web
education and support (through Rachael), and arranged for Raul to attend the
2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne to participate in
indigenous networking efforts.

As part of the transition to “URI
2.0” – with new Executive Director, many new staff, significant restructuring,
etc. – there was a new commitment to the GII and a desire to make it truly
“global”.Two URI
Trustees – Audri Scott Williams & Alendrino Mejia – were asked to help
convene a meeting if practitioners of indigenous spirituality from around the
world to discuss how the GII could move forward.

Things didn’t really work out this way.

Everything started VERY late due to travel complications
beyond the organizers’ control.(Rachael
assisted with the organizing and will have more to say about this.)The one thing that DID go right was a
welcoming ceremony held at a nearby museum by representatives of the local Pomo
tribe, making sure it was okay for us to meet on their land.There is a great YouTube video on this at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGhVmHkwPqI

“… Essie Parrish (the Mother of the Grandmother who spoke
during our gathering with the Kashaya Pomo Indians…); … was very happy. She was
very happy that we came, bringing new life to her tribe and getting her
daughter to sing a song, something her daughter has not done in a long time,
and never before in public. That signifies the beginning to the healing of her
people. She is very grateful for that.” – Luz Navarette (see below)

The first of many wonderful moments, but the end result of
the complications of getting folks there was that the GII conference started a
full day late.

Tuesday, July 1,
2014

I arrived at Four Springs retreat center early on the second
day (http://www.foursprings.org/).Four Springs is a great place, with a modern
lodge and rustic cabins, but its “rusticity” was tested by the 100+ degree
weather.Even in this heat, the setting
was beautiful, in the woods, in the mountains, above the Napa
Valley.I bunked with good friend Greg Stafford, with
whom I traveled to Guatemala
a couple of years ago. (http://covenantinterfaith.blogspot.com/2012/07/cog-interfaith-rep-meeting-w-mayan.html)I have known Greg for about 35 years and we
have shared many spiritual adventures together.He was part of the group that published Shaman’s Drum magazine and has spent considerable time studying
with Latin American shamans.At the GII
event, he was volunteering as a general “gofer”, but his knowledge of Spanish
was a plus.Luz Navarette, who was Tata
Apollinario’s translator at the People of the Earth event last year (http://covenantinterfaith.blogspot.com/2013/10/mayan-elder-apolinario-chile-pixtun.html),
and a charming young local college student named Erika Hernandez Ramirez were
our official translators.

I got unpacked just in time to join the opening
ceremony.Evereyone was wearing their
traditional ceremonial clothing.Since
my tradition of Wicca works skyclad, I opted just to wear my red cord (cingulum) and athame over ordinary clothes.I also had the travel altar I always bring to
interfaith events. It includes a red cloth, symbols of the Elements, images of the Goddess & God, a stone from Coventina's Well. I also had a nice vial of the Waters of the World. (http://covenantinterfaith.blogspot.com/2009/12/waters-of-world-ceremony-list-of-sacred.html)

We met in a rectangular space under a huge grape arbor.We all sat around the edges of the space,
while a long line of altars from the many traditions present were arrayed on
the earth down the center line, in the order in which we would each do
ceremony.

Chief Phil Layne was the “master of ceremony”, so to speak,
and started us off by unwrapping the chanupa bundle and presenting the
ceremonial pipe of Chief Crazy Horse!He
was followed by Grandmother Mona Polacca, of the Havasupai Hopi, and Diane
Longboat, of the Turtle Clan Mohawk.Each person had their own time for ceremony… WAY too much to reproduce
here.I’ll just share some comments and
quotes from the Final Report prepared by organizer Audri Scott Williams (http://www.uri.org/files/resource_files/URI_GII_FINAL_REPORT_2014.pdf), followed
by some observations of my own.

“This is a fulfillment of a prophecy that the indigenous
people would usher in. Welcome Brothers and Sisters. The Native and Indigenous
people of the world are present here, from 6 continents. All the people are
included in this process, because we are all one!! We are part of our Spirits
and our Ancestors!!” – Chief Phil Lane,
Jr.

“In my opinion you all are warriors maintaining the
traditions of our Ancestors. Our Ancestors had to sacrifice a lot; you are
still preserving our traditions and teaching the children, which is the most
important thing, I feel, you all can do. I thank each and every one of you for
being here. I hope we all receive many more blessings from this gathering.” – Erika
Hernandez Ramirez, Translator & Aztec Dancer

“Ever since I was a little boy I was taught that the Earth
is our mother. So, as we all live on the Earth that makes us all brothers and
sisters. That is my message: we are all brothers and sisters. It is most
important that I share this great joy with this circle, this gathering. I must
take the joy that I receive from this circle, this gathering back to my people,
in our little town.” – Raul Mamani, Kolla people of Argentina

“I am so touched in my heart. Last night tears came from my
eyes as I thought about how special and important this gathering is. I feel so
blessed that the gathering is the remembrance of who we are and why we are
here. We are all so blessed to call each other RELATIVES at this time.”
– Wisdom Keeper, Tom Blue Wolf, Creek Nation,
USA

“The old people say, if you do not believe in your own
prayer nothing will ever happen. So, here's my prayer for healing and I know
that my grandmother, Annacusai, is all around me, my father is right here, and
my mother is looking at me and all the ancestors that I have. I truly, within
myself, pray that here at this gathering of elders from around the world, that
I can become balanced, walk my spiritual path, and material path with practical
feet with no pain within me, with the joy knowing that I am amongst the
family.” (A beautiful chant followed in Angaangaq’s native language.) – Elder
Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, Kalaallit Shaman, Greenland

“We have an opportunity like this to work on something
together and make a real transformation in the world. So, I am very grateful to
all of you who are here because you are carrying your Ancestors. You have
spoken it, my grandmothers say this, my grandfathers say this, aye, my aunties
say this, you are carrying all of them. And therefore, we can change anything
that comes out of this. And we will do it, but it is together that we do it!!” –
Nana Akomfohene Korantemaa Ayeboafo,
Ghana, West
Africa

“We found a family from all parts of the world that is passionate
about strengthening Indigenous values and improving the lives of Indigenous
People. Prophecy has called us to the center stage of humanity as Indigenous
Nations to bring ancient knowledge systems and spiritual practices from our
respective civilizations to the resolution of modern issues and reconciliation
of relationships for the Great Peace. We realized we are not alone and must do
this work together - being a global Indigenous family is needed now. A great
wave of change for peace has begun to roll over the face of Mother Earth. All
the Ancestors of all the people gathered here – Come and join us! Come and join
us! Come and join us as we celebrate together a new era for humanity, a time
when a great balance is going to be achieved and when the Indigenous knowledge
systems of all the people are coming together now. And we are being called to
the forefront for the building of that new society.” – Diane Longboat, a
Mohawk and Turtle Clan representative from Six Nations Grand
River Territory in Canada

“It is an honor to be here in this circle, in a gathering
like this. We (Australians) are an ancient people. Our culture had been taken
away abruptly and severely (tears) through the colonization era that forced all
of us to grow up in missions. In some parts of Australia,
Indigenous people maintained their culture and stories. There are over 600
language groups in Australia.
So it's like many nations are in one country. We all have our stories of the
areas which we came from. One of the main things we have to deal with in Australia
are the social issues. And we are constantly looking at ways to make a change,
to create a country of hope for our people. There is mining in Australia
that is devastating. This is weird, last night we felt connected to this land,
my sister Sheryl heard drums playing last night, Coralie has the feelings that
she has been her before, we got...So thank you for letting us be here.” – Glenis
Grogen, Western Kuku Yalangi, Tagalaka, Djabugay and Djurri Tribal People,
Australia

“I encourage my peers at every chance I get by telling them
that we are the future and that we must be involved with what's happening in
our communities and our environment. That we must challenge the authorities and
that we must envision a world that we want to live in. I wrote a letter to
myself called ‘Seven Generations.’ It's about a world that I would like to see –
a world with all people living together peacefully, as one. I will live for
what I believe in. Why should we die for what we believe in? We should live for
what we believe in! When I wrote this letter, I highlighted the injustices of
our planet to make a point of our struggles. To heal we must look to healing. I
read a statement that said, what good is a revolution, if we can't dance? I
really look to change, and the face of that change is the grassroots movements.
It is important to encourage the youth to hold onto their culture and to work
toward peace and the healing of the planet. Thank you.” – 14 year-old Ta'Kaiya Blaney,
Sliammon First Nation of B.C.. Canada

These are just a few of the statements that are in Audri’s
Final Report, with photos from Mikuak Rai (Worldbridge Media) and Greg Harder.

My comments and observations…

1) This took a LOT of time.We started the opening ceremony on Tuesday
morning, took a break for lunch, continued with ceremony until dinner time,
stopped for dinner and sharing of stories, dance, and song, and picked up the
ceremony again on Wednesday morning, finally finishing the opening ceremony
late on Wednesday morning.With people’s
departure times starting Thursday morning, this didn’t leave us with much time
for business meetings.

2) It was necessary for us to be in ceremony together to
establish trust and that we are one big family.This was especially true for us Witches.I have stressed that it is essential that the GII focus on indigenous spirituality rather than on being
indigenous people for the simple
reasons that a) the URI is an organization
of spiritual people and that is a source of our strength, and b) the vast
majority of indigenous people are Christian or Muslim and it would destroy the
GII if these demographics were replicated over time.Even so, almost all of the 41 people present
were indigenous and it was all too easy to slip into thinking that this was a
meeting of indigenous people.Some folks clearly weren’t sure what Rachael
and I were doing there.The unwavering
support of Phil Lane and
others helped a lot.

3) I thought I saw signs of a creeping “pan-indigeneity”,
assuming that aspects of current North American indigenous practice (especially
those developed in “powwow culture”) are normative for indigenous people around
the world.

a) The
North American norms of red / black / white / yellow quarter colors were used
as being “indigenous”.Folks whose
colors were different didn’t speak up.The Australians told me later that the constant equation of the 4
directions with these 4 colors with “the 4 original couples who became the 4
peoples” left them feeling left out.Australians aren’t Africans.(Rachael and her coven made nice necklace gifts for everyone that had an
acorn suspended from things with beaded sections in red, black, yellow, and
white… and blue and green, so it got our colors in there, too.

b) There
was a constant asking of permission…
of the first peoples of that place, of the ancestors, of the spirits of the
natural world, of the ritual leaders, etc.I think we would be more inclined to do this once, at the beginning of a
ritual, and move on.Perhaps each person
felt that their piece was its own ritual, rather than part of a single opening
ceremony, but I am not sure.

c) The
primary ritual practice was heart-felt, emotional prayer, directed towards the
Creator (which was usually addressed in masculine terms).The Mother
seemed to be a more immanent, but next-step-down deity.The prayers always emphasized how powerless
we are to do anything without the help of the Creator.I couldn’t help but think that this was the
result of Christian influence creeping in to native practice, especially since
most of the folks there had been raised Christian and only returned to
indigenous practice later in life.

d) Everyone
who spoke, spoke about “the prophecies”, and how this is the time of
their fulfillment.In general, the prophecies
refer to a time of falling away from veneration of the Earth, of confusion, of
natural disasters, and of the coming together of the indigenous peoples and
their wisdom to lead the way towards a harmonious future.(I believe that “the Asclepius prophecy” from
the Corpus Hermeticum might be our
version of this.

e) There
was a general assumption that indigenous = marginalized = poor.I think that this comes from North American
natives being the paradigm for indigenous people around the world.There were two Hindus at the meeting and we
kept talking about how there are MANY practitioners of “indigenous, tribal,
polytheistic, Earth-centered, Nature-based, and/or Pagan traditions” (the words
we use in the URI) that are NOT marginal and
from wealthier countries.Shinto in Japan.Chinese folk religions & Taoism in the
Chinese influenced world.Most of the
Hindu paths in India.The many Neopagan paths in Europe,
North America, and other parts of the world.We need to broaden our idea of “indigenous
spirituality” to include these, so that we can establish a network mutual
support and economic exchange based in the roughly 25% of the world’s people
who follow one of these paths.(This
will possibly be the topic for this year’s People of the Earth conference this
Fall.)

At the end of the first day, we shared songs,
dances, and stories.

[That's me at the very back.]

When it was my turn, I sang Charlie Murphy’s “Burning Times”, partly to help folks
who didn’t already know us to understand the comparison between us as an
indigenous tradition and them.